Shanghai Museum-Friday 06-SEP

Today we discovered how to Hot Spot, and thus we can post to the Blog (so far).  Theresa woke up very early (about 4-4:30), and started fiddling.  So, by the time the alarm went off, we had mostly gotten the first Blog Post up.  Breakfast was a buffet and had a fairly nice selection.  We ate with our friends Mike and Mary Anne, with whom we planned this trip.





The Bund

The first stop of the day was to the Bund.  We had been there our first day here, but it was new for the tour group.  So, we took a long bus ride there, and all stood about the walk area and took pictures.  Then our tour guide gave us a spiel about the history of the area.  After the First Opium War, China designated about 6 cities to be open to trade with the rest of the world.  Shanghai was one of them, and a district was set up for each major country that wished to have a presence there. 



Pudong from the Bund

These districts were called “Concessions”, and the British, French, US, Russian, and Germans all had one.  Since the trade was so important, many banks were set up to facilitate the trade (including Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank or HSBC).  Most of the businesses were set up along the waterfront, or in German, Bund.  And most of the larger buildings were banks or trading companies or hotels.  But, now this area is mostly shopping and buildings of historical significance, so, the banks and financial companies have moved across the river to the west side, where land was available and cheap (once, but no longer).  Pu is Chinese for River, and Dong means West.  So, Pudong is the west side of the river.

Anyway, after story time, we had a few minutes, so the four of us headed off to find a previously located Magnum store, purveyor of the Magnum Ice Cream bars! 

Enjoying my purchase at the Silk Market while typing the blog.

After the Bund, we headed to a “silk market”, one of the “required” shop stops on the tour.  They called it a “museum”, but it was just a small collection of old tools which were ignored as we were crowded around a person demonstrating some part of the silk processing.  It was way too small, and we could not see much, so we wandered around a bit.  Eventually, we found something in the silk store to buy.  It was silky smooth, strong, brightly colored, and had a decorative motif!  I worked a bit on the blog while enjoying my purchase!



Shanghai Museum

Then it was on to the Shanghai Museum.  This was #1 on Theresa’s list for our visit to Shanghai.  It is a huge place, and billed as the best museum in China, but unfortunately, we only had 2.5 hours, and lunch was only at the expense of time in the museum.  So, we ate some fruit on the way there, and otherwise, basically skipped lunch.  The museum had four floors, and 2-4 galleries on each floor.  It was laid out very well, and was easy to see just about everything…given enough time, which we did not have!  So, we started at the top, which had an enormous display of money, coins, and printed paper money.  The coins were a few centuries BC and the paper money was about the 12^th century AD.  It was fascinating seeing the detail of currency from so long ago.  But it was slowing down the pace, so we had to hustle through most of the museum at almost a steady walk.  They had ceramics, and bronze sculptures, a huge exhibit of clothing and fabrics of the over 50 ethnicities within China, a large display of Buddha in many forms over the millennia, a large exhibit of Calligraphy, and a large exhibit for paintings.  I found the bronzes the most interesting.  They had intricate work that was as far before the birth of Christ as we are after!  There were bronze castings of bells and such, some of which were over a thousand years old, and more than 6 feet in diameter.

After the museum, we headed back to the hotel for a couple of hours before heading out for an optional evening of dinner and a show.  The traffic was really bad, so it shortened our dinner time to only about 40 minutes.  There were lots of issues with dinner, and I’ll abstain from making this a forum for complaints.  Suffice it to say, we would NOT do that again!  Then we went to an acrobatic show, also part of the add on.  Our expectation was fantastic displays of human strength, agility, and feats!  Our experience was a training school for the B-Team.  Some of the acts were good.  Some were enjoyable.  But, none of them exceeded or even met shows we have seen on cruise ships or in an average circus.  So if you are on a tour in Shanghai, and they offer a dinner and acrobatic show, you might want to pass and instead walk, or take a cab, to a nearby local restaurant!

Tomorrow, we head to Beijing!